This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

This was an extremely daring idea, but Lucien had to admit it was also quite attractive.

After all, should his plan succeed, not only would he solve the potential leak issue from the Cloud Country ruins, he could also gain a servant of Formal Wizard caliber, and one of absolute loyalty at that.

However, as a Wizard specializing in the research of Spiritual Bodies and other spiritual beings, Loren would undoubtedly be aware of this major hidden danger on herself and would certainly take precautions against it. Any attempt at infiltration similar to permeation could be detected by her and provoke a strong reaction.

To succeed in one fell swoop required a good timing, a good method, and a bit of luck.

Lucien put down the book in his hands and shook his head with a wry smile.

He was just starting to learn about Spiritual Bodies and nightmare creatures, yet he had already thought about using knowledge in this area to control and even enslave a Formal Wizard who had made achievements in this field.

One might say he was either naïve or perhaps a bit too ambitious.

"I still need to be more grounded," Lucien murmured, shaking his head lightly before taking out some draft paper to jot down what he felt were important points.

Firstly, according to these books’ descriptions of Spiritual Bodies or nightmare creatures and other special life forms, if they wished to permeate or even affect reality, they would need a vessel or a medium.

These vessels or mediums acted like a "bridge," allowing their powers to infiltrate into the real world more conveniently and in more sinister ways.

Like how Adeline had been in a "doll" state before, relying on the energy provided by Lilia, she could exert strength beyond that of a typical Third-level Wizard Apprentice with ease, and even covertly assimilate, reverse-enslave, and transform Lilia.

In that stage, the doll, or even Lilia herself, served as the vessel for Adeline’s casting, using Lilia’s spiritual power and blood as mediums to gradually infiltrate her own power into the real world. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Even by the end, when Adeline was released from the "doll" state into a nightmare creature, she had already prepared a long-term medium vessel for herself, which was the dollified Lilia.

It could even be said that after a long period of infiltration and silent modification, Lilia had essentially become a part of Adeline, or rather, an important external extension of her, and likewise an important anchor for Adeline to infiltrate and influence the real world.

However, this critically important medium vessel was inadvertently destroyed due to his doing. The damaged Lilia doll was incapable of helping Adeline leverage her power to affect the real world more conveniently, and even some of Adeline’s original powers were consequently sealed temporarily.

This was why Adeline dared only interfere with Lucien through mediums like mirrors, water surfaces, and dreams later on, but could not permeate reality directly as before to disrupt or interfere with Lucien at crucial moments.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but because she simply couldn’t.

At this thought, Lucien flipped his hand, and a segment of a doll’s arm appeared in his palm.

The break in this arm revealed some cotton wool, looking like a part from a toy that a careless child had broken.

But Lucien knew this was not any toy, but a real arm that had been completely dollified through special human body modification techniques.

Even he could use that severed arm as bait to attract Adeline, even to probe for some means and techniques related to the wizard Loren.

However, when he took out that limb at this moment, he actually harbored a bit of a testing thought.

That was to see, inside this rather securely defended underground library, whether Adeline could still lurk and peep at his every move, as she had done before.

So after fidgeting with the severed limb for a while, Lucien casually placed it on the table. At the same time, however, he quietly mobilized his spiritual power, vigilantly observing every movement around him.

The limb lay quietly on the table, not causing any fluctuations in the surrounding spatial layers.

"It seems that Adeline did not follow me into the underground library, is it because she dares not provoke the builder of this place?" Lucien squinted his eyes lightly and waited for a long time. After confirming that Adeline was not peeping at him through the Dream Layer at the moment, he put the severed limb away again and continued browsing through these precious books.

The book he was looking at this time was called "Advanced Witch Formation Studies," which he had just used as "bait." Yet, after perusing those books related to Spiritual Bodies and nightmare creatures, this book just happened to provide him with a certain thought and action guide for dealing with Adeline later on.

Perhaps he could craft a "fishing rod," using that severed limb as bait and wizard formation techniques as the rod, to "live-catch" Adeline, who usually lurked in the Dream Layer...

With this in mind, Lucien began to quickly flip through the book on wizard formations.

...

"Guardian." After finishing with the books, Lucien put them away and at the same time, spoke softly, calling out to the Snake Mother guarding the library.

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

Thousands of tiny black snakes emerged once again from many hidden spaces, rapidly converging from all directions, and once again formed the likeness of the Snake Mother.

"Just leave it on the table when you’re done." The voice of the Snake Mother was very indifferent.

"Guardian, I hope... to teach some of the content from this book to my student." Lucien spoke calmly, while pointing to "Advanced Witch Formation Studies" on the table.

"You may, but an additional price must be paid," the Snake Mother’s voice was tranquil, then she looked at Lucien. "According to the rules set by the master, if this knowledge is to be passed on, then a tenfold price must be paid. After that, it belongs to you, and you can teach it to whomever you want."

"Tenfold..." Lucien’s mouth twitched slightly, obviously feeling the pinch.

He had just already traded what knowledge he felt was exchangeable, and if he were to pay tenfold more to purchase the teaching rights to this book...

"What if I just want to pass this knowledge to one of my students?" Lucien’s tone slowed down, looking towards the Snake Mother, "She is also a Wizard Apprentice at Greybone Academy..."

"You may bring her here and pay the price for her knowledge acquisition." After finishing her words calmly, the Snake Mother’s body dissolved again, turning into thousands of tiny black snakes and quickly vanished into the tiny cracks on the ground.